Israel stocks recoup; Bezeq holders said to sell a stake

RobertDaniel

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Israeli stocks were higher on Tuesday, as buyers of Teva and Bank Hapoalim fought off sellers of Bezeq, Israel Chemicals and Africa-Israel. Technology stocks were stronger.

Late in the trading day, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's benchmark TA-25 Index rose 0.61% to 945.41, while the TA-100 Index (1884407) added 0.62% to 877.91.

The Tel-Tech 15 Index of top technology issues jumped 1.56% to 208.12.

The most-active issue was telecom-services provider Bezeq, trading lower by 3%. The Israeli business daily Globes reported that the controlling shareholders of Bezeq were offering 96 million, or 3.6%, of Bezeq's shares at 7.8 to 7.85 shekels each. That's about 4% below the stock's closing price on Monday.

Sources told the paper that the investors were looking to take advantage of the share's 3.7% rise in 2009.

The drop on Monday was "a positive indication of investors' confidence in Copaxone's patent strength and of the fact that Teva's current market valuation already reflects the possibility of potential future generic competition of Copaxone," Leader Capital Markets said in a morning note.

The investment bank Excellence Nessuah said that Copaxone probably won't face generic competition until mid-2011 and even that is "quite unlikely."

That's because even if a generics maker overcomes Teva's patents, "there is a high probability that the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] would require clinical studies for generic Copaxone, given the biological nature of the drug, its manufacturing process and its treatment mechanism," Excellence Nessuah said.

"In such a case, it could take years before Teva encounters direct competition for Copaxone."

All the banks flashed green: Hapoalim
BKHYY, +0.00%
up 0.8%, Mizrahi Tefahot
UMZRF
up 1%, Leumi up 0.7% and Discount up 1.9%.

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